Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to hear the Labor government talk about a level playing field. I suppose that is why we are about to get ourselves a $23-a-tonne carbon tax when the vast majority of the world does not have one at all. That is an awfully level playing field! I can understand why they talk about a level playing field when even those who are trading in carbon as a product are basically doing their dough—the carbon price is about six or seven bucks. These people who talk about a level playing field like to talk about it, but they are not too good at delivering it. They do not even consider delivering it to our own people. The reality is that we are talking about products where many of them, especially agricultural products, do not deal on a level playing field. We are having to deal, for instance, with grain markets that are some of the most corrupt markets in the world. The National Party believes in the orderly marketing of grain because of the discrepancies that are abundant there.

However, if you believe in a level playing field then you have to also believe that other people are just going to take advantage of our cost structure when it is in excess of theirs. They will just buy products from somewhere else. We are basically putting ourselves out of our own markets. Why this is so important is that there is no railway line to Indonesia and there is no bridge to China—there is coastal shipping. If we want to put ourselves out of a market or create a distinct disadvantage between us and the markets we need to get to, we will never find a better way than by creating a disadvantage in our coastal shipping areas.

Far from reconsidering our position, I would like the government to answer some of the issues. The government's justification for this package was uncompetitive labour laws on the international stage. That was part of the minister's justification. So I ask the minister: what are the trade exposed industries that the government is considering exempting from Australian labour laws and what impact have Australian labour laws had on the shipping sector?